Yeshiva University High School For Boys - Elchanite Yearbook (New York, NY)

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-Twenty-Four THE ELCI-I.JXITIi magazine. Our curiosity bid us go in and our trust that no human being could refuse shelter on such a day further encouraged entrance. We entered, but were suddenly dum- founded and. for a few moments. re- mained in a rapturous stupor at what our eyes beheld. Andron. the editor ot our paramount magazine in 1923. was then editor of this distinguished periodical. As my amazement did not desert me during the conversa- tion. I am at a loss today to be able to write it. As an editor. Andron was and is unequalled. XVhen l. returned to l'l-Tome. Sweet Homen tfor I had a sharp attack of nostalgia during the latter part of the tripb. I resumed a private. peaceful life. I remained in this apathetic state tor a few years. dur- ing which time I saw' very little of my former schoolmates. But the newspapers and magazines were chock-full of their names. Freiman was a great criminal lawyer. and had removed his oltice from XVest Hobo- ken to a somewhat larger town- New York. Raphael was the bane of all corporations. He was, as I gathered from the fragmentary ae- counts in newspapers. an energetic. vehement worker who with his great trust-smashing had anta- gonized all the corporations who. as a result. were then his most bitter enemies. Rosenthal. who had manifesetd a. strong propensity to politics even in the Yeshiva. was then involved in the maze of Tam- many Hall politics. Berman wended his difticult way into the Pennsyl- vania State Senate where he was the terror ot some and the delight of others. Gordis had at tirst studied law. but abandoned it for a. more congenial- profession in the field of art-has won artistic writ- er. contributor to various periodicals. Occasionally among the large pot- pourri of subjects, I read airillumin- ating article on Modern History by Sidney IS. Hoenig. Associate Profes- sor at C. C. N. Y. It was a veritable feast forthe eyes. I However, an outstanding, notable event occurred ten years ago, in 1945. The respective members of the class had all been anxiously yearning for a class reunion. This yearning culminated in actuality in 1.9-15 when most ofthe students came from their respective cities to this happy re- assembling. I can still see vividly that Sunday, a thot luxurious day..-. men alighting from ears with grin- ning countenances. a felicitous grin- ning... hands moved about promis- cuously in the air... jolly talk... order... pandemonium... There was little Grossman who had not yet out- grown his short stature but -had de- veloped into a little stubby man with a rosy face. I heard delivering a sermon from the pulpit later. To- see a diminutive. rosy-faced man thundering with a mighty hammer this chubby handl-and he was con- vincing-was. indeed. astonishing. There was Tubby Lieberman who had aspired to a relationship with Meyer London. He was now presid- ent of the Meyer London Matzo llakery. He had lost his grinning mien. his long shanibling form and had assumed in their stead a formidable front a.nd a full-formed face decked with shell-rimmed pince-

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THE EL CHAN! TE Twenty-Thrtd him he still retains that eharaeter- istie shyness. That same night as I was making my exit from the hall. I met Joseph Klatzkin with whom I had been quite ehummy at the Yeshiva. He was studying' medicine at Harvard and had eome to New York on a short furlough. I spent a delightful evening' with him fdiseussing' morbid pathology and psyehopathy. ete.l. and then with eongratulatory wishes we parted. Two years ago, in 1950. he was aknowledged the greatest living' speeialist. on eareinoma. VVith this acknowledgement eame also its handmaid-riehes. So Joseph Klatz- kin who I knew at the Yeshiva as a jolly, buoyant youth, who oeeasion- ally brooded over his future, had at last realized his life-aim. He eon- deseends fwhat an invidious word to use. but Joe is a sport. j to have tea with me sometimes.-when we ramble baek in our imaginations to old Yeshiva life. After l927 I visited New York onee a year and luekily always met some old friend. As was only natur- al, I always paid a visit. to my alma mater. Grossman. Eskolsky and Levine were near the eulmination of their Yeshiva eareer. i. e. nearly rabbis. Une summer in the early thirties. upon discovering that I had a super- tluity of money, I deeided to relieve my jaded wits with some traveling'- some educational diversion. I went to t'7ook's Touring Ageney to inquire about partieulars. Here I was over- eome by a remarkable discovery. Ur. tlleieher, who was no mean offieial at l'ook's. was my friendfthe jolly. buoyant, grae-etful. witty Abraham Gleieher of the Yeshiva. But IIOXV he earried a distinguished and im- portant air about him-not ordinary, rather professorial. He was a Ph. D. He also sailed to Europe with me and with his numerous wittieisms soon drove out the slightest vestiges of sea-sickness found in me. Besides, we met two other Yeshiva eol- leagues on the ship to whom I am ever full of gratitude for their major part in making the trip pleasurable. These friends are no other than kolsky and Levine who, having re- de- eided to tour the Holy Land and Europe. Eskolsky. whose superflu- ous tiesh had always been the butt of the elass humor was now thin even to emaeiation, his sallow face eom- prising only two large eheekbones with a thin veneer of skin-the anti- podes of the Yeshiva Eskolsky. eeived their rabbinieal degrees, Levine was still lanky and long- with long, thin legs and large feet. The purity of his eountenanee was enhaneed hundredfold-as he told me-by his assiduous eare and treat- ment. He had then, however. relin- quished the thought of beautifying his figure and had beeome entirely absorbed in his religious studies. The trip was very long, but replete with highly-eolored ineidents. In Pales- tine, one sultry subtropieal day, while strolling' down the deserted streets of Givath Shaul looking for relief from the unbearable heat of the blazing' sun, we suddenly found ourselves at the entranee of a large building. whieh. aeeording' to the numerous signs. was the publishing building' of a famous Hebrew literary

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THE ELCHAN1 TE Twenty-F1've nez. the final requisite of a corpora- tion president 's paraphernalia. There was Berman who was the Senator from Pennsylvania and had earned the distinction of being' the greatest filibusterer in'the' U. S. Senate. I remember that he promised perfect retieence at our meeting'-whieh he dutifully fulfilled. There was Eskol- sky who was by far the leanest in our assembly. and Levine who was immeasurably more obese than any of his erstwhile fellows, There was Gimprieh who, being' the most erud- ite of a list ot' clerks in a large plumbing Concern, had gradually worked his way into the sanetfum sanetorum-the president 's chair. He still .smiled sardonically-a diabolic grin. There were Klatzkin and Grilihas and Gleicherl who was Vice- President of ffook's and a lecturer at Columbia University. There was the little clique of lawyers-Freiman, Raphael. the little gentle Hurwitz and the fiery-mouthed. vehement little Silverman whose splendid work in aiding' the passage of some kosher bills had won him state-wide recog- nition. There were Reich and Brick- man, partners in a large wholesale clothing' enterprise. where they made enough profits for an ample supply of bread-and-lnitter. There were two lnisinessmen, Tiipis and Klempner. taeiturn but energetic. There was the painful Pohoskin. a painless dent- ist. There was the little mollitiuous Hoenigr, associate professor of Mod' ern History in Columbia l'niversity. A few months ago he published a book on the Great VVar of forty years ago which has been acclaimed the most authentic hook on the subject. There was also another professor, Morgenstern, who taught psycopathy at the University of Kalamazoo. There was flordis. today America's foremost. literary critic. who was then an associate editor of the Dial. also having published books on di- verse subjects-essays. novels. and criticisms. liately, there came the meticulously attired 'tEtiie Bern- stein. He came in his Rolls-Royce and entered into the hall with the haughty, stately air of the Puritan This stiffness, however. was soon 'lost amidst the'eonvivialities ot' all. Re- grettully, Andron. who was then in' Palestine, perhaps 'writing' an editor- ial tor the next issue of his mag'azi'ne. and Rudinsky. American ambassador to Russia this is the distinction of being' the tirst Socialist'ambassador ever sent by the democratic, homea of-the-freej. werenot present at that memorable assembly. Can my mem- ory ever be so cruel as to forget that day? No, never. And now as 1' sit here ensconced' in my armchair .my mind wanders oti'-it does not seek the Ql21l.'l11Q'. hectic days of early youth, nor the active days ot early manhood. nor its habitaual haunt-castles in Spain but quietly, modestly. wanders baeli farther and farther until, with a sud- den screech ot' delight, it reaches the little realm ol the Yeshiva in the year l9233. H. W,